Concentrated oil-in water emulsions of liquid active ingredients or active ingredients dissolved in a solvent are commonly used in agricultural compositions due to certain advantages provided over other formulation types. Emulsions are water based, contain little or no solvent, allow mixtures of active ingredients to be combined into a single formulation and are compatible with a wide range of packaging material. However, there are also several disadvantages of such agricultural emulsions, for example, they are often complex formulations which require high amounts of surface-active agents for stabilization, are generally very viscous, have a tendency for Oswald ripening of the emulsion globules and separate over time. Therefore, improvements in such emulsion formulations are needed in the agricultural field.
Several oil-in-water emulsion compositions for cosmetics and dermatological applications have been described in patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,658,575; 5,925,364; 5,753,241; 5,925,341; 6,066,328; 6,120,778; 6,126,948; 6,689,371; 6,419,946; 6,541,018; 6,335,022; 6,274,150; 6,375,960; 6,464,990; 6,413,527; 6,461,625; and 6,902,737; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. However, although these types of emulsions have found advantageous use in personal care products, these types of emulsions have not been widely used with agriculturally active compounds, which are typically present in emulsions at much higher levels than cosmetic active ingredients.